WAR: Global Arms - Trafficking Network Designated by US (Update: Viktor Bout Extradited)

Several individuals and companies have been designated for sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department. They have been linked to a former Soviet military officer, major international arms dealer and war profiteer - Viktor Bout. The arms he has sold or brokered has helped fuel conflicts in different parts of the world for years.



It's about time. Viktor Bout has sold weapons to the Taliban and African dictators and rebel groups for many years. Bout seems to have had some very good connections protecting him from being arrested. Most of the weapons come from "the biggest weapons arsenal in Europe", Tiraspol. Factories in Tiraspol are believed to still produce weapons and nukes are missing from that area too. There are others like Bout, but he is most likely one of the bigger fishes to catch in this network.

Related News Links:
usinfo.state.gov
news.scotsman.com
www.washingtontimes.com
www.dailyrecord.co.uk

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Tiraspol - Moldova - Mafia in Uniform

[edit on 29-5-2005 by ZeddicusZulZorander]

The title is misleading, the US has not designated this illegal arms network, the US found evidence of this network.

Great find anyways.

BTW, last time i heard Viktor Bout had dissapeared from the radar when several agencies were on his trail and were about to arrest him in Russia, if i remember correctly. He is known to have travelled all over the world making such illegal arms deals.


[edit on 30-4-2005 by Muaddib]

Muaddib

The title is misleading, the US has not designated this illegal arms network, the US found evidence of this network.

Try to click the usinfo.state.gov link. "Global Arms-Trafficking Network Designated by United States". Misleading?

The title seems to say that the US actually created this network, that's what i meant.... and yes, i think it is misleading, because the word designate implies involvement in the US making this arms network, when in fact Viktor Bout was the one who created the network.

I'm glad to see that the U.S. is taking some action on this issue. The situation in that part of the world hasn't gotten a lot of press compared to Iran and North Korea, but it is quite serious and volatile.

This fact is quite amazing:

Today, Bout has the capacity to transport tanks, helicopters and weapons by the tons to virtually any point in the world. The arms he has sold or brokered has helped fuel conflicts and support UN sanctioned regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan.

This guy can move around military equipment in a way not usually available to anything but sovereign nations! Quite scary.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

Muaddib

The title seems to say that the US actually created this network, that's what i meant.... and yes, i think it is misleading, because the word designate implies involvement in the US making this arms network

Verb: designate
1. Assign a designation to
2. Give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person)
3. Decree or designate beforehand
4. Destine

Adjective: designated
1. Selected or named for a duty

on the other hand the Adjective: designed
1. Planned or created in an artistic or skilled manner

See the difference?

I suppose with any business, it's always good to reduce the amount of competition there is

These links below I have already posted in the Tiraspol - Moldova - Mafia in Uniform thread. I think they should be mentioned here too.

MSNBC.com: Iraq Government Deal With a 'Merchant of Death'


In an effort to crack down on one of the world's most notorious international criminals, President George W. Bush last summer signed an order barring U.S. citizens from doing business with Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout. But not long afterward, U.S. officials discovered Bout's tentacles were wider than anticipated: for much of this year, NEWSWEEK has learned, a Texas charter firm allegedly controlled by Bout was making repeated flights to Iraq—courtesy of a Pentagon contract allowing it to refuel at U.S. military bases. One reason for the flights, sources say, was that the firm was flying on behalf of Kellogg Brown & Root, the division of Halliburton hired to rebuild Iraq's oilfields.

U.S. officials say Bout—once dubbed a "merchant of death" by a British foreign minister—built an empire in the 1990s flying weapons to the Taliban and African dictators and rebel groups, in violation of international sanctions. Bush's order banning business with Bout, a former Soviet military officer, was for supplying guns to the rogue regime of ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor. "Our ultimate goal is to shut down his network," says Juan Zarate, assistant Treasury secretary.

Lee Wolosky, a former National Security Council official who tracked Bout, says it's "seemingly inexplicable" that the U.S. government could have been "doing business with an international criminal organization."

Douglas Farah: Viktor Bout Flys On

April 19, 2005


Unbelievable as it may seem, Viktor Bout, internationally-wanted fugitive and weapons supplier to the Taliban and al Qaeda, continues to fly for U.S. firms in Iraq, being paid by U.S. taxpayer dollars. So confident is he of whatever protection he seems to have, that he has not even bothered to change the call letters of his aircraft, flying under MCC, the designation of Aerocom. Two flights, MCC 9025 and MCC 9027 are scheduled today and tomorrow into Iraq.

It does not seem to matter that Aerocom lost is Moldovan air operator certificate in August 2004 and, according to international aviation officials, does not appear to have re-registered anyplace else.

And yet, nothing seems to change. Bout's planes are spotted in Iraq, Afghanistan, the DRC, and no one seems to be able to actually DO anything. Ultimately, it is no one's responsibility. So our tax money continues to go to international criminals who, in theory, are barred from taking our money and who supplied airplanes and weapons to a regime bent on destroying us. Interesting, and not a good omen in the fight against terrorism.

The Yorkshire Ranter: Jet Line lose a Jet


An Ilyushin-76TD belonging to suspected Boutco Jet Line International has crashed into Lake Victoria immediately after take-off from Mwanza. All 8 crew were killed. The aircraft was ER-IBR, serial number 43454623, belonging to Jet Line of Chisinau, but apparently operating as Airline Transport, another suspect outfit from Moldova. Unlike Aerocom and Jet Line, Airline Transport doesn't share an office, but it has flown to Iraq.

Reports have it that the aircraft carried "fish" on its way to Croatia, but then Viktor Bout has frequently claimed that his aircraft carry only "fish and flowers", so frequently that it has reached the status of an aviation joke that an aircraft loaded with "fish" probably contains contraband. (Perhaps the smell of fish transported in tropical heat keeps Customs away.)

[edit on 2006/4/23 by Hellmutt]

A little update on Viktor Bout and some other stuff...

Douglas Farah: A Bit More on Chichakli, and Spicer's Iraq Contract Not Up to Standard

May 02, 2005


Well, it seems as though accused Viktor Bout associate Richard Chichakli was not happy when his house and businesses in and around Richardson, Texas, were raided by law enforcement last week as part of the Treasury Department's OFAC asset freezing order. Seems that Viktor himself and Viktor's brother Sergei, who has taken over the day-to-day operations of the Bout network, called into Chichakli while he was with law enforcement folks, asking what was going on. [---]

His attitude during questioning by law enforcement ranged from outrage to saying he wished he had died fighting the cops when they came in in order to be a hero to his children. Chichakli is not under arrest, only his assets have been taken. The computer forensic work is going quite well, and there is alot that is being learned about the finances of Bout's empire. [---]

An interested reader sent me a nice little Reuters story from April 22 that I had missed, regarding the $293 million contract British mercenary Tim Spicer magically managed to procure to work in Iraq. See earlier blogs for details, but suffice it to say he is a bad, rogue element, joining Viktor Bout in receiving millions of dollars in U.S. tax payer money for shady work. His company is Aegis Defense Services Ltd. [---]

In a sample of 20 records of 125 Iraqis employed by Aegis, six had not been interviewed, 18 had not had police checks and no records existed at all for two of them. [---]

That is great. We hire a bad guy of very questionable reputation, and he doesn't even do the work properly. Very good choice, all the way around!

Click the link to read the whole thing...

[edit on 2006/4/23 by Hellmutt]

This is an interesting article from The Washington Post. It´s from April 25th, the day before April 26th (the date of the source in the initial post in this thread)...

The Washington Post: A Protected Friend of Terrorism

Monday, April 25, 2005


The Bush administration is touting the rule of law and democracy as priorities in its effort to create stability and defeat terrorism. Yet it remains curiously apathetic about the activities of one of the world's most notorious indicted war criminals, a man who is also an abettor of al Qaeda and Hezbollah. I am speaking of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who has not only escaped answering for his crimes so far but who may be given an opportunity to repeat them if the United States does not act.

It seems to matter little here that Taylor's efforts to escape justice may well succeed because of U.S. inertia. Indicted on 17 counts of crimes against humanity, Taylor poses a clear and present danger to West Africa and U.S. interests. Yet the State Department continues to respond to congressional inquiries with bland assurances that everything is fine and Taylor is no longer a problem. It's not true.

[---]

In August 2003, under siege militarily, Taylor fled to Nigeria under an asylum deal backed by the Bush administration and Britain's Tony Blair. The terms of the agreement with Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo were that Taylor not be allowed to participate in "active communications with anyone engaged in political, illegal or governmental activities in Liberia." In return, Obasanjo would not be criticized for harboring an indicted war criminal.

Click the link to read the full article...


[edit on 2006/4/23 by Hellmutt]

Looks like another one of Bout´s planes just crashed in Congo...



[edit on 2006/4/23 by Hellmutt]

The Usual Suspect

Originally posted by Muaddib
The title seems to say that the US actually created this network, that's what i meant....

I must confess, that's what I thought, too.

The impression I got as an American myself was that this network is what Uncle Sam recommends buying your weapons from.

It's a matter of connotation, I suppose.

And after all, it's not like the U.S. isn't a major competitor in this arena.

Here´s a little more info on the previously mentioned plane crash in Congo.

The Yorkshire Ranter: Congo Incident

At the moment, I can offer little further information expect that "List" is a typo, it should be Kisangani Air Lift. This outfit was created sometime this year, and its only known aircraft was the one that crashed. Apparently it was leased from "Aeroworld", but I have yet to trace any company of that name. There is a World Aero Airways in Kisangani, though, started this year, which possesses one aircraft, an An-26B registered EK-26060, serial no. 17311107. Its past includes various small operators in the CIS and a period with "private users" in Kyrgyzstan.

Various media reports disagree on key points, some of them stating it was leased to, not from, "Aeroworld" which might anyway really be called "Euroworld". However, no operating airline of that name exists either - it is however the old (pre-1992) name for BA's subsidiary Cityflyer Express. I suspect the disagreement is down to mistranslation as there seems to be a majority of each version in different languages.

Everyone seems to agree it was an aeroplane, that it crashed, and that ten people were killed. Four of them are described as being Russian and making up the crew.

click the link to read the full version...

[edit on 2006/4/23 by Hellmutt]

Viktor Bout seems to has been working for the UK Ministry of Defence even after many of his companies were blacklisted by the US. The following is "Operation Mirrorball". Sorry for the big quote but it's necessary...

The Yorkshire Ranter: Evening Standard Censored (Operation Mirrorball)

Friday, May 13, 2005

HOW CAN BRITAIN STILL USE THE MERCHANT OF DEATH?

Today the UK will promise to curb arms traffickers. But the MoD is hiring planes from a dealer linked to Bin Laden.

By Andrew Gilligan. Evening Standard, Monday, 9th May 2005.

Victor Bout [sic] is the most notorious arms trafficker in the world. Linked to Osama bin Laden by the British government, linked to the Taliban by the US government, he was described by a New Labour minister as a "merchant of death" who must be shut down.

Yet an Evening Standard investigation has found that, just two months ago, a Victor Bout company was hired by that very same British government to operate military flights from a key RAF base.

Bout, a 38-year old Russian, owns or controls a constellation of airlines that have smuggled illegal weapons to conflict zones for the past 15 years. He has been named in countless official investigations and reports - the most recent only last month. The authorities in Belgium, where he used to work, have issued a warrant for his arrest. In 2004, the US froze his assets and put him on a terrorist watch list [not that they stopped him flying to and from Baghdad, TYR].

But between 6 and 9 March this year, according to official Civil Aviation Authority records, two Victor Bout charter flights took off from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The cargo was armoured vehicles and a few British troops. The client was the Ministry of Defence.

The charters were operated by an airline called Trans Avia. It was named as one of Mr. Bout's front companies by the Government itself - in a Commons written answer on 2 May 2002. The Government cannot claim ignorance of Bout's dubious links. The Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane reassured MPs: "The UK has played a leading role in drawing international attention to Bout's activities, initially in Angola and Liberia and more recently relating to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda".

A specialist aviation journal reported that the "al Qaeda link" was Bout's role in supplying bin Laden with a personal aeroplane - in the days before September 11, when he had a little more freedom of movement. Could Trans Avia have gone legit since then? Not according to the United States Treasury Department. Only two weeks ago, on 26 April, the Treasury "designated" Trans Avia as one of 30 companies linked to Bout, "an international arms dealer and war profiteer". Bout "controls what is reputed to be the largest private fleet of Soviet-era cargo aircraft in the world", says the Treasury press release. "The arms he has sold or brokered have helped fuel conflicts and support UN-sanctioned regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan. Notably, information available to the US government shows that Bout profited by $50 million by supplying the Taliban with military equipment when they ruled Afghanistan."

The story doesn't end there. Another two flights were made in the same three days of March by an airline called Jet Line International, also from RAF Brize Norton. A further three flights were made at the same time from another base, RAF Lyneham. The destination was Kosovo. The client, once again, was the Ministry of Defence.

Yet Jet Line, too, is a company that has been accused of close connections to Bout. According to the authoritative US newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, it appeared on a list of Bout companies circulated by the State Department to US diplomatic posts around the world.

"There is no doubt at all about the links between Jet Line and Bout," says Johan Peleman, the researcher who wrote the UN report. "It's one of his most important assets." Intelligence agencies say the same thing. Jet Line's office address in its base at Chisinau, Moldova, is the same as that of Aerocom, a company exposed by the United Nations as involved in sanctions-busting and arms-smuggling to the brutal rebels of Liberia. According to the UN, Aerocom was involved in the illegal smuggling or attempted smuggling of more than 6,000 automatic rifles and machine guns, 4,500 grenades, 350 missile launchers, 7,500 landmines, and millions of rounds of ammunition in breach of a UN arms embargo.

Tracking down the registration numbers of the sanctions-busting aircraft, it turns out that the Jet Line aircraft that flew the MoD flights in March were previously registered to Aerocom. They are in fact the same planes.

Bout's activities have helped cause quite literally thousands of deaths in many of the worst places in the world. Born in 1967, he served in the Soviet air force and then military intelligence, where he developed a gift for languages. When the USSR broke up, he "acquired" a large fleet of surplus or obsolete aircraft, which he used to deliver arms and ammunition also "acquired" from old Soviet stockpiles. That weaponry fuelled some of the most savage wars in Africa. Charles Taylor's insurgent guerrillas used Bout weapons to destroy Liberia. In Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) used Bout weapons to terrorise the country, seize the diamond mines, and chop off their opponents' hands.

None of our business? Well, the RUF's Bout-supplied weapons were almost certainly used to attack British troops engaged on the Sierra Leone peacekeeping mission in 2000.

Bout's planes would arrive at obscure African airstrips, loaded with weapons, then leave heaped with diamonds, coltan - vital for making mobile phones - and other precious minerals in return. "He was apolitical," said one UN official. "He would fly for anyone that paid." Bout's willingness to go places that no-one else would go made him the market leader in the arms-trafficking business. Little wonder, therefore, that the then Foreign Office minister Peter Hain said "The murder and mayhem of Unita in Angola, the RUF in Sierra Leone, and groups in Congo would not have been as terrible without Bout's operations." He was truly "a merchant of death", Hain said [and for a long time I respected Hain for it, too - TYR].

Bout used to operate from Ostend, in Belgium, where a shabby hotel in the city centre acted as his informal marketplace. There was a flight departures screen in the hotel bar, so he could keep track of his planes' movements. Then he was forced to retreat to Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates - and after September 11, to Moscow, where he controls his empire through front companies such as Trans Avia. "You are not putting facts. You are putting allegations," he tells journalists on the rare occasions they manage to get through on his Russian phone number. [Actually, the quote comes from his surprise appearance on Ekho Moskhy radio in 2002 - TYR]

Britain has been embarrassed by dodgy airlines before. Last year, the Department for International Development promised a full investigation after the Standard exposed its use of Aerocom on an aid flight to Africa. The problem is that few reputable carriers want to fly to Kosovo, Iraq, Darfur or some of the places where the government needs transport. And the airline brokers used by Whitehall seem to have learned surprisingly few lessons from past embarrassments.

In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said the fact that its broker "seems to have used an aircraft in Jet Line International livery" was not the same as saying that the MoD itself had contracted Jet Line. But, whatever hairs the MoD may choose to split, the payout - for Mr. Bout - is the same.

Today and tomorrow, at the MoD's vast procurement headquarters in Bristol, defence officials are holding a special conference with human rights groups and arms trade campaigners. The purpose is to persuade them that the government is serious about cracking down on the scourge of arms trafficking.

One good way to start might, perhaps, be to stop putting British taxpayers' money into the pockets of the worst arms trafficker in the world."

[edit on 2006/4/23 by Hellmutt]

Yet another Antonov crashed in Congo. It was probably loaded with highly explosive "fish & flowers"...



[edit on 2006/4/23 by Hellmutt]

Douglas Farah: U.S. Military Moves to Cut off Bout Flights (Finally), and the Taylor Battle Drags On

Saturday, May 28, 2005


It looks like the US military in Iraq is finally starting to crack down aimed at forcing Viktor Bout's companies from flying there, at least under currently-known names. My sources on the ground tell me Air Mero, suspected of being a Bout operation, has suddenly stopped flying. And the CAA, which controls the flights, has just issued a new list of requirements to for all air operators there, asking them to re-file, with much more detailed information on ownership and maintenance, for permission to operate in the theater.

It isn't the first time measures have been taken, and Bout has proven extremely adept at simply re-registering companies and moving back. Still, it is the first sign that someone in the Pentagon has finally felt enough pressure (it is not likely a twinge of of conscience) to take some basic steps to at least make life moderately more difficult for the Merchant of Death.

Click the link to read the full version...

I also recommend the following report which was given to me by Ulgemannen: Following Taylor´s Money: A Path Of War And Destruction (May 2005) (pdf file). The whole 38-page (easy to read) report is very interesting, but if you just want to read about Viktor Bout you can start reading on page 23 in that report. I bet you cannot put it away once you start reading...

[edit on 2006/4/23 by Hellmutt]

Did he sell those things illegally or just against the will of the US department of treasury ? He sold weapons to the Taleban ? was that before or after the Us governement gave them weapons ?

I fail to understand what make Mr. Bout so special as to have to "designate" him, he just seems to be one out of tens of thousands arms dealers around the world. What has he done to attract the vindication of the "US department of treasury" ?

The OP scands "war profiteer". I almost fell off my chair when i read that, knowing the US decided a 500bn defense budget this week. Who profits from that ? In my opinion the US tries, as always, to "smoke-screen" their own problems by pointing fingers at others.

Same thing goes for the more than hilarious "UN oil-for-food scandal". How about the real scandal? How about the 8.8 billion that went missing in Iraq in the year following the illegal invasion? Not worth a scandal ?

H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S

[edit on 28-5-2005 by Moretti]

Originally posted by Moretti
I fail to understand what make Mr. Bout so special as to have to "designate" him, he just seems to be one out of tens of thousands arms dealers around the world. What has he done to attract the vindication of the "US department of treasury" ?

From page 23 in this previously mentioned report

He had two important assets that set him apart from other traffickers: a private fleet of about 50 aging Russian-made aircraft, acquired as the Soviet bloc crumbled, and the ability to procure not only weapons, but advanced weapons systems (anti-aircraft, anti-tank systems, attack helicopters), on short notice. This came from his unparalleled access to stockpiles of weapons in the former Soviet bloc

Bout´s reach extends far beyond Africa. His network has been documented delivering weapons in the Philippines, Colombia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan.

But I suggest you read that report in full. I can´t possibly quote the whole report. They don´t call him The Merchant of Death for no reason. And yes, he sold weapons to the Taleban and Al Qaeda too...

So what, many armed groups cannot afford F16 or Heckler&Koch, so they have to buy Kalashnikovs or whatever is cheap on the market. I agree with you that arms dealing in violation of UN decisions isnt the best thing to do, but a US governemental body complaining about it is nothing short of surreal. They just invested hundreds of billions into an illegal war and this guy got 50 million in benefits? How about the billions of benefits of US arms and financial companies on the back of 100.000 dead iraqis? That is monstrously illegal war profiteering, not that little guy.

[edit on 28-5-2005 by Moretti]

Ok, Moretti you don`t know anything about what you are writing.

This MR.Victor Bout is one of the worlds largest illicit weapons dealers in the world.
I must comment your utter unenlightened views about comparisons.

1. It`s not empirical to compare the entire military budget of the USA with what Victor Bout made on one(!!!) deal with Taliban.
2. Conflicts in Chechnya, Abhkazia, Ossetia, Nagorno Karabach etc. in the caucas region largely gets weapons from Bout and his companions.
3. In Africa countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Angola, Congo etc. has got an enormous amount of weapons from Bout`s syndicate.
4. Colombia also gets weapons through this network from weapons caches in Nicaragua(from the Iran/Contra affair)
5. Victor Bout works indirectly for the coalition in Iraq.


Do you think he made only 50 million dollars from all these deals?

I am sorry to say, you are wrong, but you are excused since you obviously don`t have any knowledge whatsoever on this topic.

All the countries mentioned are suffering deeply from casualities made from light weapons, not from weapons of mass destruction.
Weapons of mass destruction is rarely used, and is considered as weapons used for terrorbalance.

So, maybe you Moretti should read this report:

counterterror.typepad.com...

And after you have read this report, maybe your eyes are widened a little.

I will not give you any tutoring, but you should atleast read all the links that Hellmutt provided on this topic and do some extra study of your own before you reply with an apparantly provocative agenda.





[edit on 29-5-2005 by Ulgemannen]